


FALLING (AGAIN) FOR YOU.

by youubi



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Amnesia, Amnesiac Raihan, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Canon, Slow Burn, Temporary Amnesia, this fic didnt need to exist but here i am anyways
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:40:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26454274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youubi/pseuds/youubi
Summary: After disappearing for three months, Raihan reappears in the Slumbering Weald remembering and knowing nothing. After coming to terms that a man he loved was now gone, Leon (and Raihan) learn how to fall in love all over again.Set after the canon events in Sword and Shield games.
Relationships: Dande | Leon & Kibana | Raihan, Dande | Leon/Kibana | Raihan, Mentions of Past Relationship(s), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 54





	1. Knowing (who are) you.

**Author's Note:**

> As he takes a seat again next to the bed he lays his head on the bed, his eyes closed as he focuses on the sound of Raihan's breathing. Leon personally doesn't believe in any gods, but as he focuses on the warmth emanating from his beloved he prays fervently, a short prayer he repeats over and over under his breath.
> 
> 'Thank you for bringing him back.'

When they had found him again, he was peacefully asleep.

"He was found in the Slumbering Weald, near the center where the ruins are. He had said that he had gone there for training when we last saw him several months back, right?"

Sonia spoke with a furrow in her brow, her hands gripped on a clipboard with the notes she had scribbled down for the current undergoing investigation. In any other situation, Leon would have pointed her brow out and teased her for her despised future wrinkles but as of right now all he could do was fixate firmly on the hand in his own, fingers gently running over those unmoving digits as if to reassure himself that he was here, that he was here and _warm_ and _breathing_ and _alive_. 

Raihan was safe, and that was all he could focus on.

The noise of a pen being tapped against wood ripped his attention from Raihan, those golden eyes peering again at Sonia who bit at her bottom lip in a show of frustration.

"I just don't get it. His body functions are fine, and his health hasn't fluctuated at all. Heck, he hasn't even shown any signs of aging! It's like… it's like he just disappeared and returned one day! For all we know, he blipped out of existence!" She raised the pen, tapping it on her forehead in a groan. 

Leon listened with half of his conscious, the other still settled upon Raihan's peaceful expression as he looked back towards the trainer with a soft sigh, his thumb now running over the other's knuckles (hardened, calloused from years of training, of self defense). 

Leon's own eyes felt dry, whether it be from the days he has spent crying himself to sleep or from his relentless, blinkless staring. He couldn't help it, he felt as if he were to blink he may open his eyes to see Raihan being gone again.

He had gone through three months of this already. He couldn't handle much more.

The IV drip next to them clicked as its gears rotated, the only constant noise other than Sonia's thoughtful humming and the click of her pen. 

A stream of orange light licked its way through the heavy curtains at the bedside window. The sun was setting, and Sonia's Yamper shifted his weight uncomfortably at her feet, the atmosphere strangely somber.

"This is my fault."

Sonia is startled as Leon speaks, and even Leon pauses as if his lips had moved of their own will. His tongue feels heavy in his mouth, and his voice sounds foreign to himself.

"I should have gone with him, or figured it out sooner. He didn't have to be gone this long, I should have gone after him, or contacted or called but I had figured he was just needing alone time or-" His voice breaks and he takes a shaky breath. " This… this is my fault."

He feels a hand being placed on his shoulder and he looks to the hand with a forlornly look. 

"Don't say that, it isn't. None of this is your fault."

Sonia's once well manicured hands were chipped and worn, devoid of the usual colorful paint she usually had . He knows she had suffered alongside him, they all had. 

"Thanks." Quiet, and muttered through dry lips. The hand on his shoulder squeezes in response.

Leon fights the stinging in his nose as he sits up, clearing his throat and drawing his hand back in order to tuck Raihan's hand gently back on his chest as Sonia also steps back.

As he stands he runs a hand through his hair, pushing the locks out of his eyes as he fishes his phone out of his pocket with his free hand. "Visiting hours are almost over. I'll get you a cab home."

Sonia shakes her head. "It's fine, I think I'm staying overnight at a friend's. We're still analyzing the clothes he was wearing, we're hoping it has some clues as to where he went."

Leon nods, but he looks again to Raihan. Those dark locks were unstyled and out of the usual orange headband the trainer sported, laying in a halo on the pillow as that chest rose once more with another sleeping breath. "Alright, give me a call if anything changes."

Sonia nods before clicking at Yamper, who stands and follows her out of the room, before she glances over her shoulder to give him a knowing look. 

The previous champion waves, a grateful smile on his face. The privacy was appreciated, he hadn't had a moment alone with Raihan ever since he was rushed into the hospital.

In fact, he appreciated all of Sonia's gestures. Her position as Professor meant she had direct access to the current ongoing investigation of Raihan's whereabouts the past quarter of the year. She had been a steady source of comfort over those sleepless weeks, and while she hid her care in tupperwares of curry with notes saying some variant of "made extra curry" Leon appreciated it nonetheless.

As he takes a seat again next to the bed he lays his head on the bed, his eyes closed as he focuses on the sound of Raihan's breathing. Leon personally doesn't believe in any gods, but as he focuses on the warmth emanating from his beloved he prays fervently, a short prayer he repeats over and over under his breath.

_Thank you for bringing him back_.

  
  
  
  
  
  


Leon had been in Motostoke for a regular scheduled meeting with sponsors when he got the text from Sonia. 

_He's awake, but before you go in to see him I have to tell you some news._

It was a flurry of paper and apologies as Leon rushed to the hospital in Wyndon, 

Leon found Sonia standing with her thumbnail between her lips, teeth worrying the surface as nurses walked in and out of the room. He nodded a greeting to one of them before grabbing Sonia's attention with a call of her name.

"Is he okay?" Leon asked first, his priority, of course, Raihan's safety. Sonia nods, her expression still troubled as she glances at the door with a frown.

"Yeah, but I have some good and bad news and I wanted to tell you in person. Which do you want to hear first?"

Leon rarely felt impatience, but at this moment he scoffs. He wanted to check on Raihan, see him awake, to see those sea-colored eyes again. "Does that matter right now? Just tell me straight, Sonia."

Sonia puts a hand on her hip, her expression unchanging despite Leon's exasperation. "Okay, but don't tell me I didn't warn you. Raihan has severe retrograde amnesia. It's bad, he can't remember anything. He didn't even remember his own name." 

She shifts, her hand now worrying at the hem of her shirt (the fabric there now threadbare, this had become a habit). "But he's completely fine physically, and the brain scans show no brain damage. He's healthy, but not himself."

Leon puts a hand against the wall, stabling himself as he parses the information in his head. 

"Everything?"

Sonia grimaces, her eyes now stuck on her shoes, her normally effervescent personality subdued and dull. "We're still doing checkups and some questioning, but he's in a fragile mental state. We don't know the exact extent of the amnesia, but…" 

Everything. That was all Leon needed to hear to know.

Raihan remembered nothing. He leans more heavily against the wall, a hand now on his forehead as he struggles to breathe.

_This is my fault_. 

As he struggles to stay afloat, it is again Sonia's hand that saves him from drowning as she grasps his arm, her grip a buoy among this sea of thoughts. "I've spoken with the doctors already, we think it may be alright for you to see him as long as you don't strain anything. We're hoping something of strong emotional attachment may jog his memories a bit, but you can't touch him."

Leon hesitates before nodding. Sonia nods before squeezing his arm. "Everything will be okay, Leon, we'll figure it out. He's healthy and alive, that's all that matters, right?"

Leon nods again, and Sonia smiles wanely. "Alright, I'll let you in now."

She knocks on the door and a nurse opens it, peering at the both of them before standing back to let them in. Sonia steps in first and Leon, with a deep breath, walks after her.

Nothing could have prepared him for the look of unfamiliarity that crosses Raihan's face as he steps into the room, an unrecognizing glint in those (achingly) familiar eyes.

"Who is this?"

Leon feels his heart shatter as Raihan looks with fear between him and Sonia, a Raihan who looks so much like the man he loved, no, still loves, a man who he could count all the individual scars upon the other's hands and tell the exact number of freckles on his face.

A Raihan who didn't sit before him, no, hidden underneath the veneer of fear and anxiousness of this individual's face.

"Raihan, this is Leon. He is someone very close to you. We were hoping that by interacting with him we can help you find some of your memories." Sonia spoke kindly, but terse, a terseness that Leon could only hear through the practiced ear of a close friend.

It was a similar tone she had taken on when speaking of her future back before she became professor. 

Raihan's lips go thin as he looks away from Leon.

"I don't know… I don't recognize him." He sounds painstakingly guilty, a defeated look on his face and Leon feels another pain in his chest.

Despite this heart aching confession Leon still wears a smile on his face, seating himself next to Raihan with a wave. "Don't worry about it, we can take our time on this, alright?"

Leon gives the other another a warm smile and Raihan can only look to him distrustingly, those sea-colored eyes troubled as if in the wake of a storm.

"Al… alright." 

Sonia looks concernedly at Leon, her eyes gazing over that plastered, fake smile. She knew. Leon knew she knew. Sonia hid her concern with a clap of her hands, drawing gold and blue eyes to her kind face.

"Okay, we're just going to observe from the hallway but we'll give you two some space to talk. Raihan, if you feel uncomfortable at all just press the button next to the bed and we'll come for you, okay?" Sonia spoke with a reassuring smile of her own before waving the other nurses and doctors out of the room.

The hospital staff stream out of the room alongside the professor, and Leon is left alone with Raihan again. 

As Raihan avoids his gaze, Leon knows not whether this was better or worse.

"So… I…" Leon starts before his breath leaves him in a soft huff and he folds his hands together, holding that gaze steady (but his expression soft, vulnerable).

"Let's start over. I'm Leon, and we were friends, back since when we were kids." The previous champion starts slow, his fingers running over his own palm in a private show of self comfort. It felt so strange, putting things in past tense.

What was even more strange was Raihan's lack of reaction, as if he were speaking to a stranger.

Leon takes a deep breath.

"We trained together, and, uhm… I suppose you could say we spent a lot of time together. We were pretty close." Leon spoke with a soft laugh, a hand raising to rub at the back of his neck as images of their time together in the wild area come to mind, those nights they had spent giggling and poking each other under the covers of their sleeping bags before looking up at the stars and speaking of greater things, of their dreams and their goals, of their ambitions and who they were going to be.

Still, Raihan's expression remains distrustful and blank and Leon would be lying if he said it didn't twist the knife in his chest even further.

"So, uhm, Raihan… anything you remember or-"

"Don't call me that."

Leon feels his lips close shut as Raihan speaks for the first time they were left alone, those blue eyes glaring, an untrusting gaze that Leon had never encountered before in their long friendship.

The look of a cornered animal.

"Oh, erh, is there a reason? It's your name, right?" Leon speaks gently, wearily, his gaze faltering as he looks in a sudden hidden panic to his hands, to a scar on his thumb. Has that always been there?

"I know it's my name, but… It doesn't feel right. I don't… I don't remember anything. It's not my name, not yet." Raihan speaks again, his voice afraid, unsure. Gone was that confident grin, those piercing, knowing eyes, that man who knew all of their past and personal jokes and closeness. Gone was the man who both guarded the history of Galar and the history of their friendship.

It was like speaking to a lost child, and Leon felt immensely uncomfortable with that imagery.

The next thought he had made him feel even more uncomfortable.

_This wasn't his Raihan._

He stands and Raihan looks at him with a startled jump, cowering back in his bed and to the unknown expression on Leon's face.

Leon hides his pain with another drawn smile, his eyes steely. "Sorry, I think I need to go speak with the professor real quick. I'll talk to you later, alright?"

Raihan looks away, looking to the wall with a frown. "Alright."

Spoken with as much terseness as Leon. 

They were strangers.

Leon leaves the room. Raihan releases the small button he was hiding in his hand.


	2. Familiar (friends) faces.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's the same with 'im. He's still Raihan, whether he got those memories or not. Still that annoyingly tall bloke with a weirdly sharp tooth." Piers sneers, sipping at his tea. 
> 
> As Leon watches the man then hiss and blow on the tea with a curse, he realizes how alike the two of them are. Former Champion and former Gym Leader, sitting on that same cracked-leather loveseat, both sipping on a mug of too-hot Rawst berry tea.
> 
> In another world, in another Galar where Leon had stayed in Postwick, maybe their previous positions would have been reversed.

Leon didn't stay at the hospital.

Sonia hadn't kept him behind. A glance at his pale face and she had let him go.

Being in the same building as that man, a man who tugged so heavily at his heart and yet couldn't even recall his name, surrounded by those death-scented walls that showed no compassion, no promise, it was all too much.

He had gone the furthest he could, the most distance he could put between himself and that awful hospital, urging Charizard to the quickest speeds possible. He couldn't go home, not with the laden memories that had settled itself within those walls and the days he had spent with _him_ . Not with the pity that will definitely find its way in his mother's eyes nor the ever endless curiosity that will find its way to his brother, he can't handle any of that.

  
By the time he had reached his destination the sun had set low on the horizon, another day, a day and three months and Leon still fled. 

The wind had stung at his eyes and it let him fight back the tears.

Piers sauntered down the street and watched in disdain as Leon leaned heavily against the sign-covered wall of the Pokecenter in Spikemuth, the Ultra ball containing Charizard sitting heavily in his hand.

"I know I offered, but you could at least give me some kinda forewarning before dropping your arse 'round 'ere. Caused quite a scene with the crowd, it's a show day." Piers spoke with that thick Spikemuthian drawl, those pale eyes moving to look at a tourist scurrying by (who stopped as if to debate taking a photo before that dark-circle framed gaze caught wind of them). There were more of those types around here after Marnie's debut at the Championship semi-finals.

The former champion sighs, leaning his head back onto the wall for a moment. There was something about how different Spikemuth was, something about the closeness of its walls and the busy graffiti that felt so comforting in comparison to the sterile walls of the hospital.

Leon looks apologetically to the singer, tucking the Pokeball back into his belt before scratching at his cheek. "Sorry, I was in a…" He pauses. What could he call it? Losing the love of your life to a situation you couldn't control, having that love of your life look at you like a Buneary cornered by a Lycanroc, to not recognize your very face while you could recite their whole life's story to them? "... A rough situation." 

Piers rolls his eyes but has the grace enough to not push it. As the former Dark Gym Leader wordlessly turns to walk back down the street, Leon pushes off the wall and follows.

"Y' were just a' the hospital, right?" Piers speaks as they leave behind the busy lane, heading down one of the alleyways and leaving behind a relatively empty street into a practically abandoned lane. "How's he doin'?"

The former champion grimaces, hiding it by turning his face away as if to look at one of the walls. He remembers those scared eyes and he shakes the image away. "He's fine, his body is perfectly healthy."

"Can't be all too bad, he never was the one to take a roughin' up easily." Piers spoke with a snort, stopping at a door and fishing a ring of keys from his jacket pocket. "The day the dragon tamer Raihan rolls over easy is the day I eat my pants, I suppose."

Leon can't help but smile at the image of Raihan, _his_ stubborn Raihan and his ever rambunctious hardheadedness and his ever brave steelheart.

Piers opens the door and waves Leon through, and Leon easily walks into the rundown apartment lobby. He had done this before, he remembers the numerous times he had walked through these tired halls the days he couldn't find his way back home and he was in the area. As they climb up the stairs to the second floor Leon breathes in the strangely nostalgic scent of dust, a scent that old buildings often carried. The hallway is narrow but homely, with a passing by out-of-costume Team Yell member waving them a friendly greeting before heading down the stairs they had just climbed up.

Spikemuth could be summarized a lot by these moments: rundown, yet comforting.

The former Gym Leader fingers another key off the ring in his hand before opening the apartment door and he walks through, Leon tagging behind him and closing the door behind them.

Was it fourteen years back already? A younger Piers had rescued him from wading through the tall grass on Route 9, a concerned look on that meek face as Leon cradled an injured Charmeleon in his arms. He had been severely undertrained and underleveled at the time, having wandered away east from Motostoke without knowing the area.

He remembered that moment clearly. Raihan had been there with him, fending off a stray Grapploct with a struggling Vibrava. He had that blue fire in his clear eyes, a similar expression he wore to this day when he battled Leon.

Leon notes with a rueful pain that he missed that expression.

"Make yerself a' home, I've got nothin' else on my sched t'day." Piers sits heavily in a overworn loveseat, the cracked leather groaning against his weight despite Piers' light frame. Leon walks through the apartment, glancing at the hanging posters of various music artists and Pokemon trainers as a hand removes his hat. With a sigh (he's been doing that a lot, recently) he tosses the hat on the low coffee table before sitting next to Piers with a frown.

A moment of silence passes, and Leon closes his eyes. Something strangely akin to grief sits heavy in his stomach and he rubs at his eyelids with a hand.

"So, what's eatin' ya?"

Leon straightens with a start, hand lowering as he turns his head to look at Piers' keen gaze. He puts on an easy smile, running a hand through his hair with a laugh.

"That obvious?"

Piers rolls his eyes but sits up with him, resting his elbows on pale knees. "O' course, I've known ya' for what, comin' on a decade and a half now. You wear ya' heart on yer sleeve, Leon."

Golden eyes run back to his hands as he remembers. "It's… well, it's about Raihan."

"Tell me something I don't know, mate."

Leon presses his thumbs together, the pressure keeping him grounded. "Raihan has amnesia."

Piers hums. The lack of quip for this statement serves as an unspoken invitation to continue, and Leon's brows furrow a moment before he does.

"He doesn't remember anything. He doesn't remember-" 

_He doesn't remember me._

Those icy eyes remain steady on Leon as he falters. He laughs at this mistake, leaning back and putting a hand to his forehead. "Otherwise, he's perfectly fine. The picture of health, really. I shouldn't have been so worried, Raihan knows how to take care of himself after all."

Saying it aloud didn't make it any more real for Leon. He wished it were that easy, to make anything he says a reality. In a younger year, Leon would have made it happen, he had that magic.

But a former champion was just not that; he was immagical, obsolete. 

"So that's it, eh? A lil' memory loss has yer tail between yer legs?" Piers responds after a moment of thought, standing with a snort. As he moves towards the small kitchen he adds over his shoulder, "Th' great Leon, undefeated Champion for thirteen years and yet he's beat by amnesia? You can't be serious, mate."

Leon feels his ears and neck heat up with shame. "Past tense, Piers, I'm not the Champion any more."

"Doesn't change th' fact ya' did that, though, hm? Yer tellin' me you aren't that Leon? And that means I'm not Piers, former Dark Gym Leader of good ol' Spikemuth."

"But he doesn't remember anything, he didn't even know his own name."

"And you, th' undefeated Champion, was defeated. And yet you're still Leon."

Leon's mouth opens as if to respond but he finds no words. Piers returns with a smug look to his face and a mug of tea in each hand. Of course he could make concrete ideas like this one seem so much clearer, he was an artist after all. He offers one to Leon and the man takes it with a quiet thanks. Piers seats himself next to him again, that dark-and-white hair tickling Leon's arm.

"It's the same with 'im. He's still Raihan, whether he got those memories or not. Still that annoyingly tall bloke with a weirdly sharp tooth." Piers sneers, sipping at his tea. 

As Leon watches the man then hiss and blow on the tea with a curse, he realizes how alike the two of them are. Former Champion and former Gym Leader, sitting on that same cracked-leather loveseat, both sipping on a mug of too-hot Rawst berry tea.

In another world, in another Galar where Leon had stayed in Postwick, maybe their previous positions would have been reversed.

Leon chuckles at the imagination of a Piers dressed in that awfully heavy cloak, his gangly frame drowning in the red velvet. No, Piers flourished best in the shadows and the dim lights of the concert stage, not the too-loud too-bright Pokemon stadium.

"Glad to see you're still the bitter medicine you are as ever." Leon speaks with a wry smile, lifting the tea to his lips to sip at the herbal drink.

Piers rolls his eyes again, but gives him a thin smile of his own. A sense of warm camaraderie settles itself in that small, dingy, but homely Spikemuthian apartment.

"Don't get sappy with me, save it for dinner. You're payin' this time around, by the way."

  
  
  
  
  
  


Raihan looks blankly at the small button in the palm of his hand.

He had hurt that man.

He knew that much, he may not remember anything but he wasn't stupid. He could tell from the way those lips had tightened, the way those eyes had steeled when he spoke, the way those hands had pressed together in an almost painfully firm way.

Blue eyes narrow. Raihan must have known this man before, it was clear in the way he had said his name.

His _name_. Raihan.

Raihan. Raihan. Raihan.

The more he repeated it to himself, the less it had become a word and more a noise he responded to. That lady in the white coat, Sonia, had said it first in a panicked breathy tone, her clipboard falling in a clatter to the floor.

"Raihan, your name, you remember that at least, right?"

He doesn't remember how he responded exactly. Was it just a shake of his head, or had he said something? Either way, the sudden crash of despair on that professor's face (she was oh-so easy to understand, Raihan was grateful for that at least) was enough. It told Raihan everything.

He had forgotten quite a lot of everything.

A knock at the door had Raihan looking up to that professor walking in before tucking her hands into her coat pocket. 

"Sorry about that, Raihan, you don't know it yet but that guy's a bit on the busy side. Always needs to be out doing something, that poor Charizard. I tell him to cool it all the time, you know?"

Raihan feels like this should be familiar, but nothing creeps through the clouds in his mind. 

As he settles his gaze upon the button in his palm again, it's only the weight of something being placed on the bed next to him that has him drawing his eyes up again as he peers at the conspicuous black-and-white ball placed next to him. It had a strange "U" shape on the top in golden detailing.

_Similar to that man's eyes_. 

Sonia smiles, her hand drawing back. "Do you know what this is?"

Raihan frowns at the question, yet another one of those. But, as he looks at the ball (feels it through the sheets of his hospital bed, feeling the warmth, the _heartbeat_ that reverberates through the metal object) he slowly nods.

"It's a Pokeball."

"Correct!" Sonia (poorly) hides her delight with a clap of her hands. "Alright, now, do you know what's inside of it?"

Raihan answers easily this time, the word already dancing on his tongue. The fog in his head wavers, and he worries his bottom lip with his teeth. "A Pokemon."

Sonia claps again before seating herself next to Raihan, the same seat that man had sat (Leon, his name was Leon). 

"How would you feel about meeting this Pokemon, Raihan? They're another old friend of yours, I think they will be happy to see you for a bit."

Raihan already has his hands on the ball, a familiar curve to it as it rests easily in his palm. It simultaneously thrills him, and yet he wasn't surprised. He has done this before, held it before. He knows that much, at least. The fog in his head is still settled uncomfortably, but it feels thinner.

In a smooth, practiced motion he tosses the object to the side of the bed, watching as the ball opens in a sparkle. A green creature stretches on the floor before standing on its hind legs, wide eyes beneath those glassy red frames on its head now fixated on him.

As the creature chirps, Raihan reaches out without thought. The creature- no, Flygon, that is his name, rests his head on his hand with another chirp before ending in a soothing hum, his body vibrating in happiness and Raihan can't help but smile.

"You're so warm." He speaks with a laugh, running a hand along Flygon's jaw and the Pokemon shakes happily, those iridescent wings fluttering softly on his back.

Raihan leans over the side of the bed to rest his forehead on the dragon's head, and the creature hums again, a small chirrup coming from the Pokemon's chest. Raihan knew what he was saying, even through the border between humans and Pokemon.

_I missed you_.

"I missed you too, buddy."

Sonia watches with a smile as Raihan speaks under earshot to the Flygon, a pressure on her chest lifting. She peeks at the door where several nurses (who also were amateur trainers) had stood by ready in case Raihan were to react adversely to Flygon with a wave, and they nod in return. 

The Dragon trainer's Pokeball belt had been found close to him when he was located in the Slumbering Weald, but strangely after a regular checkup the Pokemon had shown no signs of the amnesia their trainer suffered. While Sonia had a the ghost of an idea of why this was after the last of the checkups, she still made the decision to return the Pokemon to Raihan.

He needed something, after all, she couldn't imagine how lonely it was without memories.

The professor pushes those thoughts away from her mind, and Sonia was optimistic about this introduction. Raihan responded positively to his Pokemon, that was all the information she needed.

He still retained some memories beyond speech, if only subconsciously. 

She makes a mental note to write this down later (and to text Leon, he deserved to know at least this much).

"He's all yours. If you want, I can come by with the rest of your Pokemon later." Sonia speaks with a smile before adding with a whisper, "But make sure you do it in the courtyard, alright? I don't think Duraludon will fare well on the third floor of a hospital. He tends to be rather fussy."

A glint of familiarity makes its way into Raihan's eye, and Sonia feels her chest swell as a peek of that old confidence returns in the form of a lop-sided smile.

"You're right, thank you professor."

Sonia waves a hand, a friendly look to her eyes that Raihan finds oh-so-familiar and can just barely place in the mist in his mind. "Please, call me Sonia."

  
  
  
  
  
  


By the time they finish dinner, Leon has four missed calls and four times the amount of unanswered messages.

Piers watches with amusement as Leon struggles with the Rotomphone, the device zipping about in a lively manner around the flustered trainer.

"It's like watching someone handle a wild Impidimp." Piers commented dryly, sipping at his third mug of tea that night. Not unusual for a singer. "Bet checkin' yer emails takes the whole morning."

"I didn't use a Rotom growing up, Raihan was the one who insisted I get it-" Leon spoke with a frown, the device now levitating behind him to run through his tied hair and flip the tail into his face. He blows the locks way with an exasperated laugh. "As you can see, I never got the hang of it."

"No kidding."

Leon finally gives up with an exaggerated sigh, throwing himself back on the couch as the phone shook in laughter above his head. "Alright, Rotom, you win this time. Can you just let me look through the messages, at least?"

The device vibrates for a moment before an automated voice runs through the small phone speakers. "You have ten new messages from Sonia."

The phone then turns its screen towards Leon's eyes, and he reads through them with a mild hurry. As he reaches the end he sits up, Rotom narrowly avoiding crashing into Leon's face with a quick zip upwards.

Those gold eyes fixate on the screen, wide and enchanted. 

"Raihan remembered his Pokemon."

Piers peers at Leon over his mug, a thick, drawn-on brow raised. "That's good."

Leon grins, putting a hand on his face as he repeats it. "He remembered his Pokemon." The weight of that information rests like a warm blanket on his chest. "He remembered."

_He remembers something._

A light bloom of hope finds its way in Leon's throat, a beautiful warm feeling. He hadn't forgotten everything, he didn't forget. That thought repeats itself in his head, entwining with the hopes and prayers he had laced into his every breath ever since he first held that man's hand the day they found him. All of it, all of that emotion dances together and it releases itself with a soft sob. Piers watches in mild panic as Leon sniffs, using his palm to rub at his eyes. The singer groans.

"I know I said the sap could wait til' dinner, but now I'm thinkin' we should re-schedule it t' breakfast." The Spikemuth resident speaks with a gruff hum, mumbling over his tea. Nonetheless, he wraps an arm around the other's shoulders. Leon is grateful for something physical to tie him down as he becomes overwhelmed with another wave of emotion.

And Leon stays like that, letting the emotions of relief and hope run over the burden in his stomach and wash out his fears. Out of everything that was taken away from Raihan, whether it be his memories, his life, his career, Leon... at least Pokemon wasn't one of them. 

A small, but major beginning for both new and old trainers, Pokemon always symbolized new beginnings. Evolution and life. He closes his eyes, praying once more to whatever deity looked after him, a habit he was beginning to indulge in more and more these past several months.

_Thank you_.

Piers sets his finally empty mug on the coffee table next to empty take-out boxes, thin fingers pulling that unruly hair back as he crosses his legs on the seat. "We could go by tomorrow to visit. Bring some stuff for curry, o' something like that. Bet that diva of a Duraludon is gonna be fussy after some time without it."

Leon takes a shaky breath, glancing at the shorter trainer with a smile. He sees straight through Piers roundabout nature, a pure brilliant grin on his lips. "Wanting to see him in person?"

Piers shrugs. "S' been a while since I've given him his scheduled earful of me anyways, might as well. Three months now, hasn't it?" 

Golden eyes glimmer with fondness. "Alright, let's go in the afternoon." 

"Good, don't think I can wake up early 'nough for the mornin' anyways."

And Leon just felt a little bit better.

  
  
  
  
  
  


The sun still shone enough to dapple through the coloring trees despite the hazy autumn clouds that hang overhead. The bag hung heavy at his hip, a small leather pouch that contained five Pokeballs with the golden insignia he had received earlier. Pokemon, _his_ Pokemon he notes with a pang of satisfaction. It was nice to own something, to have a concrete _anything_ after waking up having lost _everything_.

"Are you the dragon tamer, Raihan?"

A shy but clear voice and Raihan looks down to a blonde child with wide blue eyes, eyes that recognized someone that wasn't there. He lowers the Ultra ball in hand, a toothy grin settling on his face. The hospital courtyard otherwise was empty, the trees rustling in the autumn breeze. How strange it was, this newfound confidence he feels with that Pokeball being held in hand. It felt so comforting and familiar, a rarely found feeling in his fogged mind.

"I dunno about the dragon tamer part, kid, but my name's Raihan." The name feels less foreign on his tongue. He shifts his weight, putting his free hand on his hip. "What's your name?"

The boy stiffens, his face dusting a light pink. "Oh, sorry, it's John! Nice to meet you, sir!"

Raihan snorts. "Don't have to call me sir, makes me sound old." 

John nods. "Uh, okay!"

As Raihan returns his attention to the Pokeball in hand the boy makes another noise, and Raihan looks back at him with a raised brow only to see shimmering eyes full of admiration. Expectations of someone, again, of a Raihan that wasn't there. And yet, it felt natural. Again, familiar. Raihan runs a thumb over the ball in hand, the warm surface comforting.

John notices the ball in his hand and brightens. "Is it alright if I see your Pokemon, Mr. Raihan?"

Raihan hesitates. The ball in his hand nudges, and that movement encouraged him. She had spent enough time stuck in the ball, that little nudge told him so. He breathes in and tosses it out with a practiced flick of his wrist. With a preen, a slime covered dragon makes its way into the courtyard. She stretches for a moment before turning to Raihan with a happy song, waddling over to him with wide doe eyes full of love. Raihan can't help but smile, placing a kiss on the dragon's cool forehead.

"Goodra! That was your opening Pokemon against the previous Champion in the exhibition match last year, right?" John exclaims in awe, a hand clutching his chest.

The trainer's lips thin as he shrugs, moving away from the Pokemon and letting her place her head in his outstretched. "I dunno, I don't remember."

John takes it in stride, his small hands curled in fists as those blue eyes widen as he begins to beam brightly. "I do, I remember! I was there, in person you know! The Champion brought me on a Corviknight!"

Raihan struggles against the urge to step back from the kid's sudden enthusiasm.

"The way the two of you fought, it was almost like a, like a dance! I've never seen a battle live, it… it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen… You know, next time I see Leon I'm going to battle him! He promised me he would, and, uhm, even though he isn't Champion any more he'll still remember, right?" The child speaks in a hurry, breathless and at the same time so full of a vibrant life.

Raihan opens his mouth, a sudden breath leaving his throat as the name leaves John's lips. 

Leon, Leon, Leon. 

The man with golden eyes.

Raihan moves to crouch, his arms resting on his knees (and the slime dragon next to him sings, settling on her haunches next to him. Blue eyes soften as he feels her cool skin on his leg.

"John, can you tell me more on what you know about Leon?"

The child gives his own thoughtful hum. "Uhm, sure, but you probably know a lot more about him than I do, being his rival and all." John then furrows his brows. "But why?"

Raihan is already struggling. It was so scary trying to lift that ever-present fog in his mind, to learn more about the man he once was and should be. It was like learning how to walk, how to speak again after years of not using your legs or voice.

He knows he should try and learn, but it felt so vulnerable.

Raihan begins slowly, his words deliberate as he picks each line carefully. "I just want to see what others think about him. It will help me a lot, John, more than you know buddy." He adds with a tentative grin, "Maybe it'll help me figure out how to beat him."

While he says this line more to act like the Raihan that others seem to see him as, he realizes as he utters the line that he genuinely meant this line with all of his heart.

John waits a moment, that young face suddenly much wiser than his years before reaching into his pants pocket, pulling out a small device (a Rotom phone, Raihan registers, something he felt like he was intimately familiar with) and pulling up something as he speaks.

"Leon was the unbeatable champion of Galar, he was undefeated for thirteen years. He was practically… invincible. He was… no, he is the region's hero."

John visibly glows as he looks at his phone. "He's _my_ hero." As the boy turns the screen, Raihan peers at a photo of a younger but recent Leon, maybe only several years back. There were less wrinkles between his forehead from what he remembers the other day, a brighter light in that man's eyes in comparison to that scared man he had seen sitting next to his bed.

Those eyes were raised triumphantly in the air, a beautiful glow to them as a dragon-like Pokemon engulfed in flame stands imposingly behind him. Charizard, the name echoes in Raihan's head.

Charizard and Leon.

Raihan unconsciously moves a hand to his chest as he feels his heart twist.

John lowers the phone, a tired smile that doesn't belong to such a young boy gracing that pale face. "You know, before I met Leon I didn't think I'd ever become a good trainer worthy of battling the Champion."

The boy puts a hand to his own chest. "I was born with a not good heart. It doesn't work the best all the time. So, uhm, the idea of battling Leon felt so far away… Leon felt so far, far away."

Raihan watches in amazement as John puts on a determined expression. "But when I met him he didn't care that I was from the hospital. He didn't care that I was in this stupid hospital gown. He told me that the next time we meet, we are going to battle. He wasn't going to hold back, even if I'm just a kid from a hospital."

John wraps those hands behind his back. "Made me feel like any other person out there, it made me feel equal to him, you know? He treated me not like a patient, but a trainer."

The boy's eyes narrow as he raises one of those fists. "I'm gonna get better, and then I'm going to leave the hospital, catch a Pokemon, train up, and then battle him!"

The boy grins. "I'll enter the gym challenge too, so I can also battle you Mr. Raihan!"

Raihan raises a brow before looking down at the Pokemon next to him. Goodra coos, looking back with a trusting expression that brings back images. Images of a cooling rain, a soft precipitation that falls on Raihan and a small slime dragon that he faintly registers as Goodra before she became who she is now. 

As Raihan turns the image in his mind a sudden shout of a nurse has him looking over to a chestnut-haired nurse jogging to the courtyard, her expression stern.

"John! You're not supposed to be outside today, your surgery is tomorrow!" She scolds from afar, and John tucks the phone quickly back into his pocket.

"It was nice meeting you Mr. Raihan, but I gotta go! Next time we meet, let's have a battle!" John shouts with a laugh before jogging back towards the hospital gardens. The nurse rushes past him in another flurry of scoldings (and a haphazardly thrown apology his way) and Goodra bobs her head in amusement. As the two figures disappear behind the hedges of the garden, blue eyes raise to the autumn sky. The clouds had disappeared, chased away by the strong sun. It felt warm against his face.

"My rival, eh?" Raihan mumbles, leaning against the soft dragon. Goodra sings again, pushing her wet snout into his neck. He laughs in response, speaking into her skin as he finds some drop of self confidence, an emotion that settles comfortably in his stomach.

It felt right. It just felt right to be confident, for once. He grins, a toothy smile.

"Rival to the Champion? I must have been a pretty cool guy."

Goodra warbles happily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters from here on out hopefully will be longer since I am hoping to tie this up cleanly in ten chapters! Otherwise, thank you for your patience and your support, any critique or feedback are definitely welcome! On that note, I'm still looking for a beta reader but just the fact you're reading this fic alone makes me immensely gracious.
> 
> On that note, thank you for everything!

**Author's Note:**

> Currently looking for a beta reader who is willing to use Google Docs for much of the editing process due to my own busy schedule! Therefore, this chapter is un-beta(d) and I apologize for any mistakes.
> 
> This is my first fic for Leon and Raihan, I hope I do them justice!


End file.
